Monday, December 21, 2009

Health Care, Whether we want it or not.

The senate presses forward with the new healthcare bill, whether the citizens want it or not. The problem is that no one seems to know what it it is. The whole idea of healthcare reform is supposed to be making it more available to the people. What we are hearing is that it will cause our insurance to go up. That some health care insurance is going to be taxed. If prices are driven up doesn't it make it less accessible?

"Voting 'no' and hiding from the vote are the same result. Those of us on the floor see it. It was clear the three of them who did not cast their yes votes until all 60 Senate votes had been tallied and it was clear that the result was a foregone conclusion. And why? Why all this discord and discourtesy, all this unprecedented destructive action? All to break the momentum of our new young president.

They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one."

Senate Democrats said the payoffs are nothing unusual, and in fact typical.

"People figaht for their own states. That's the nature of a democracy," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnt., said on "Fox News Sunday," defending Nelson against withering attacks from the GOP.

"This is just part of the normal legislative process," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.As a measure of just how typical they are, a slew of payoffs and concessions have been struck over the past several months.

-- Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., won between $100 million and $300 million in additional federal aid for her state's Medicaid population. The deal, secured before she cast her critical vote in favor of bringing the health bill to the floor, was immediately dubbed the "Louisiana Purchase," though the actual Louisiana Purchase was considerably cheaper.

-- Vermont and Massachusetts got $1.2 billion in Medicaid money -- a change that was described as a correction to the current system which exempts those two states because they have robust health care systems. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also boasted Saturday that he requested and won an investment worth between $10 and $14 billion for community health centers.

Apparently the Democrats find nothing wrong with buying votes. Maybe reid really does stand a chance in 2010, if he can only buy enough votes. Conservatives Republicans and libertarians who dare criticize or question, and not fall in line with the the "Beloved Leaders" are attacked fiercely. As Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) speech on the Senate floor

"Voting 'no' and hiding from the vote are the same result. Those of us on the floor see it. It was clear the three of them who did not cast their yes votes until all 60 Senate votes had been tallied and it was clear that the result was a foregone conclusion. And why? Why all this discord and discourtesy, all this unprecedented destructive action? All to break the momentum of our new young president.They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one."

The Bill is projected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Who is going to pay for it? Probably not the Chinese, but even Obama seems to understand this.

"In the long run we can't continue to spend as if deficits don't have consequences, as if waste doesn't matter, as if the hard earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like monopoly money, that's what we've seen time and time again, Washington has become more concerned about the next election than the next generation."

I wonder why he doesn't suggest to the Senators to give up the bill? Hmmmm ..